St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page A001

ex-president, Tehran mayor will face each other in runoff election INSIDE, A2 THOUSANDS RACEFORTHECURE METRO METRO THOUSANDS RACEFORTHECURE HRISTOPHER AREY AND AKE AGMAN Of the Post-Dispatch Whoever buys the St. Louis Blues will get a treasured asset a National Hockey League franchise with a run of 25 consecutive playoff appearances and one of the most supportive fan bases in the game. But with the team might also come a substantial liability the debt its earlier owners took on to help a $170 million downtown arena. The ability of a new owner to keep a competitive team on the ice and reverse years of losses will depend partly on how the purchase agreement is structured. The fortunes of the NHL itself also will be a factor.

Bill and Nancy announcement that they are putting the Blues and their arena lease on the market less than six years after buying the team could be a sign of things to come in other NHL cities, said Dan Mason, an associate professor at the University of Alberta. Louis is certainly a city that has a long-standing hockey said Mason, who teaches a class on the business of hockey. fact that the Blues are for sale is probably a pretty strong indicator of where hockey could be But others view the sale as more of a re- on the priorities of the owners than the prospects for the league. Bill Laurie has always been more interested in acquiring a National Basketball Association franchise than running a professional hockey team, said Patrick Rishe, an associate professor of economics at Webster University who specializes in the business of sports. think he saw having Savvis Center as an opportunity to chase his dream of professional Rishe said.

The Lauries, of Columbia, have a fortune in Wal-Mart stock. The couple stunned St. Louisans in September 1999 by agreeing to buy the Blues and take over the lease at the arena, known then as Kiel Center. The value of the deal was reported at the time as $100 million. The head of the group that owned the Blues said more than $90 million of the purchase price represented the outstanding debt on the arena.

ON AWYER Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau Chief WASHINGTON At a time when the United Nations is both under siege and ripe for reform, President George W. Bush himself with no U.S. ambassador to the world body and facing open revolt from conservative Republicans over how tough U.S. demands for change should be. What is at risk amid the partisan politics, experts say, is the best chance in years for substantive reform at the United Nations.

John C. Danforth, who stepped down as U.S. ambassador in January, says making the United Nations a political punching bag is only harmful to U.S. interests. He was especially critical of a House vote Friday that threatened to withhold U.N.

dues. we actually withdraw funding, or limit our funding, or fall into arrears on our dues, the result of that will be to impede our ability to use the United Danforth told the Post-Dispatch. a mistake. It makes us appear to be pouting, demanding, undiplomatic and U.N. Secretary-General nan, under over allegations of mismanagement of the Iraq oil-for- food program, has embraced the reform agenda.

He is pushing for action when world leaders come to New York in September. His recommendations, and those of a high-level panel including former U.S. national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, were largely embraced in a report released last week by a task force co-chaired by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R- and former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, D-Maine. The panel was set up by Congress in December to review ways to make the United Nations more effective. Among the Gingrich-Mitchell recommendations: An independent oversight board, with full audit powers.

EVIN ERMOTT Post-Dispatch Bureau PEKIN, Ill. The mayor is facing criminal charges of betting city funds at the local riverboat casino, but not necessarily the most startling thing about latest gambling scandal. In the few years since legalized gambling into the region, residents of this community have gotten used to seeing public politicians, lawyers, even police nailed for playing the tables with other money. notable this time is that the mayor, Lyndell Howard, admits gambling with the city credit card, stressing that he repaid the money. He issued anything that sounds like an apology and has vowed to run for re-election.

A lot of people here think he could win. amazing what plays in, and around, Peoria these days. think there is a certain tolerance when you hear about these types of cases said Tazewell County Attorney Stewart Umholtz. He is prosecuting PAGE A01MI3MN0619 www.STLtoday.com JUNE 19, 2005 $1.25 1 2 3 4 5 6 ILLINOIS ST. CHARLES Vol.

127, No. 169 See Pekin, A4 WEATHER B8 POST-DISPATCH WEATHERBIRD SUNDAY Sunny and dry. High 86. MONDAY Partly cloudy, warmer. Low 67.

High 89. Father and son run kitchen at Annie METRO Expectant dads share their hopes and fears EVERYDAY Competing visions, personal attacks bring down EU summit INSIDE, A13 home, Vietnam vets to Branson, for tears, laughter and healing NEWSWATCH Get complete coverage of the sale of the Blues, including polls on what might happen with new owners and tax breaks, online at STLtoday.com/blues one FAMILY PHOTO The Duckworth family in the mid1980s: Franklin Duckworth, his wife, Lamai Duckworth, and their two children, Tommy and Tammy Duckworth. DAVID CARSON POST-DISPATCH Tammy Duckworth served as commander of Bravo Company for the 106th Aviation unit of the Illinois Army National Guard for three years. In October 2003, Duckworth was turning over command to one of her lieutenants when she learned that the unit was being called up to go to Iraq. She pleaded with her battalion commander not to be left behind.

HILLIP ONNOR Of the Post-Dispatch Helicopter pilot Ladda Tammy Duckworth never saw the rocket-propelled grenade that soared out of the Iraqi desert toward her Black Hawk. At that moment, 4:30 p.m. Nov. 12, Duckworth, 36, was feeling lucky as she piloted the Black Hawk above the muddy brown Tigris River back toward her base at Balad. Not many women get to combat missions these days.

Duckworth was among a small sisterhood of about 350 women who the versatile and sturdy workhorse. And an even smaller number have the $6 million aircraft in Iraq. And, of course, only Tammy had Franklin Duckworth for a dad. She was hell-bent on making him proud. And on this day, sure he was.

Franklin Duckworth was a veteran of two wars and had earned a Purple Heart at Okinawa. Franklin had long encouraged Tammy, and her younger brother, Tommy, to serve their country. Tommy would go into the armed forces, Franklin and Tammy would land a government job. going to give you a good life and good he told them. As it turned out, Tommy had no stomach for the military.

He want to kill people, he said. He dropped out of an Army ROTC program, served eight years in the Coast Guard and now works for a pest control company. It was Tammy who took to the military. This series is part of an occasional look at the changing roles of servicewomen in time of war. Find other stories online at STLtoday.com/womenincombat Pilot Black Hawks to serve her country and please her father See one A10 See Blues, A11 PARTONEOFTHREE PIN: MARK MULDER COUPONINSPORTS See Bolton, A3 Mayor Lyndell Howard admits gambling with the city credit card, stressing that he repaid the money.

SALE OF THE ST. LOUIS BLUES Opportunity to reform U.N. could slip away amid U.S. political battles Bolton nominee as U.N. ambassador Gambling-related chargesno longer shock Pekin, Ill.

Savvis debt could weigh on new owner appointment has meant controversy for S. Illinois Catholics. This week, he becomes their leader. IM OWNSEND Of the Post-Dispatch next bishop has a job ahead of him. The diocese has a shortage of priests.

He will need money to train lay ministers and pay them. And he will have to decide whether to continue an emotionally charged plan to cluster parishes. But first, he has to face a tough crowd at his installation Wednesday. Many of the diocesan priests who will be present as Edward K. Braxton is installed as eighth bishop tried to prevent the very ceremony be watching.

Braxton, meanwhile, has kept a low refusing to talk publicly about his plans, his philosophy, or anything else. But those who will talk about him those who have worked with him when he was an auxiliary bishop in St. Louis for nearly years, or when he was the bishop of Lake Charles, or when he was the pastor of a church in Chicago have widely varied views of the man. Those close to him call him loyal, hard-working and goal-oriented. See Braxton, A11 Tough job gets off to rocky start New owners must confront old problem: Making hockey here stillposes a challenge.

SPORTS BELLEVILLE BISHOP.